Generally, a PDP is a flat panel display that uses plasma generated by a gas discharge to display characters or images. A PDP may include, depending on its size, thousands to millions of pixels arranged in a matrix format.
As shown in FIG. 1, a PDP includes opposing glass substrates 1 and 6 facing each other with a discharge space 11 disposed therebetween. A plurality of scan electrodes 4 and sustain electrodes 5 are arranged in parallel pairs on a first glass substrate 1 and extend along a first direction. Scan electrodes 4 and sustain electrodes 5 are covered by a dielectric layer 2 and a protective layer 3. A plurality of address electrodes 8 are formed on a second glass substrate 6 and extend along a second direction, which is substantially perpendicular to the first direction. Address electrodes 8 are covered by an insulator layer 7 having barrier ribs 9 formed thereon, that are between address electrodes 8. Phosphors 10 are disposed on a surface of insulator layer 7 facing glass substrate 1 and on both sides of barrier ribs 9. A discharge cell 12 is formed within discharge space 11 at an intersection of an address electrode 8 and a pair of scan and sustain electrodes 4 and 5. A wall charge results from an address discharge generated between address electrode 8 and scan electrode 4 in a discharge cell 12, which is then sustained by the repeated generation of a sustain discharge between scan electrode 4 and sustain electrode 5 to display an image.
Wall charges are the charges that form and accumulate on a wall (e.g., a dielectric layer) proximate to an electrode of a discharge cell. These wall charges will be described as being “formed” or “accumulated” on the electrode, although the wall charges do not actually touch the electrodes.
The barrier rib defining a discharge space prevents an erroneous operation (i.e., cross talk) between adjacent pixels by intercepting light generated during the discharge. A PDP includes a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix format, wherein each pixel includes a surface coated with phosphors. A commonly-used PDP produces desired colors by exciting the phosphors coated on the inner wall of the pixels with ultraviolet rays caused by a sustain discharge.
Referring to FIG. 2, electrodes of a PDP are arranged in a matrix configuration, wherein the address electrodes A1 to Am are arranged in columns, and the pairs of scan electrodes Y1 to Yn and sustain electrodes X1 to Xn are arranged in rows.
At present, one frame (i.e., one TV field) may be divided into a plurality of subfields, which are subjected to time division control for displaying intermediate gray-scale data of colors in the PDP.
As can be seen in FIG. 3, one TV field may be divided into 6 subfields, and each subfield includes an address period and a display discharge sustain period according to a 6-bit gray-scale data display method.
Further, looking at FIG. 4, the capacitive component Ca+x is defined by a sum of a capacitive component Cx generated between the address electrodes and the pairs of sustain electrodes and a capacitive component Ca generated between the address electrodes.